Need Help for my wife.

[Phil Zito]

Females, please respond.

My wife is new and she is starting to do basic lifts and cardio but she has no idea how to eat enough calories and I don't know what to tell her. I know its hard to eat alot when eating clean, but I don't know what kind of diet a woman needs.

[Emily Mattes]

Zone with a Paleo bent. Lots of lean meats, vegetables (especially leafy ones), some fruits, little grains. Healthy fats.

[Sakura Barrientos]

hey phil. well, there's so much to recommend here. it just depends on how your wife wants to approach everything.

- check out the "ten pound challenge" thread. go to the beginning. susie rosenberg lost a ton of weight with CF and diet. i think that could help.

- read "mastering the zone". you could start with the first zone book, "entering the zone", to get a basic idea...i did the quick start sort of deal and jumped to "mastering the zone".

- if the zone is something that could work, check out CF Journal #21 (this issue is free). it has a break down of blocks, meal plans and just general info on the zone if you don't want to buy a $25 book.

- go with what emily suggested. lean meats, veggies, healthy fats. try to stay away from bread, white rice, sweet cereals, pastries, etc. healthy fats would be like almonds, olive oil, avocados... cut out caffinated drinks. drink tons of water.

- understand that if you do the zone then for the first two to three weeks, measuring is very important...then you can do eye-ball measurements. go strict for about two to three weeks and then vary your diet. there are a list of "favorable" carbs for the zone.

- know that with any changes in eating habit, it should be a lifestyle change and not a quick fix. the zone teaches you what your body needs to be at its best. it also shows you how much you should eat if you were in tip top shape---so that as you "shrink" or burn body fat and gain lean mass, you're still eating as much as you did in the beginning

i'm sure there will be tons of posts to follow and a critique on mine as well. read some blogs of the "locals". mine is on my signature. you can try these others...

brendan from north santa cruz: http://brendanevil.blogspot.com
bob (his wife kerry is-i think-in the same position): http://bobscrossfitblog.blogspot.com
susie rosenberg (amazing woman): http://susierosenberg.blogspot.com

[Phil Zito]

Yea she is real new to the gym and she was just saying to me are you sure I can do crossfit I haven't been to the gym in years. I told her to just do scaled exercises as I think crossfit is the best program as far as all out functional fitness.

[Bob Guere]

Hey Phil,

My wife Kerry is pretty much in that same position, as Sakura eluded to. She's just 100% trusting me right now because she doesn't "LOVE" it like I do. I'm obsessive almost when it comes to something I enjoy, and I'm really getting down with the zoning and crossfit lately. If you can get her to read on this site and/or show her some of the amazing success stories (Susie Rosenberg is perfect), she might drink the cool-aid for a couple weeks. I blog daily about our workouts and progress at http://bobscrossfitblog.blogspot.com.

My wife is making great strides in the gym, but if the scale doesn't move, she get's quickly discouraged, which sometimes you'll find in my other posts. She'd be the perfect subject for that magic pill everyone at Globogym is looking for. But, she hasn't quit. We're 6 weeks in and after our weigh in this week, I'm going to make sure I point out where we were 6 weeks ago to help with motivation.

But, to your particular question... we ZONE.

[Veronica Carpenter]

does sex really matter? I hate counting calories. I just eat - healthy most of the time.